Family Dinners

me and my mom at the table

Some things seem very nostalgic these days with the rapid pace of technology and the keep pace world we live in today.  One of those things that has become the exception instead of the norm is the act of having Family Dinners.  At the risk of sounding old I will say that when I was a kid we had dinner with the whole family every night and when we didn't that was the exception.   My dad worked outside of the house and my mother was an alterationist who worked from home and when she would finish her work she would cook dinner.  When I was a kid normally I would be over at my friends house 3 houses over from mine and when it was time for dinner all my mom would do is go outside the backdoor and yell for me to come home for dinner.    I doubt that happens anymore.   Moms probably text their kids that dinner is ready to eat but that doesn't necessarily mean that they will be having a sit down family dinner.   These days kids are all over the place or obsessed with texting and video games and tv and various sporting or other events that they run off to.   A normal meal is now spent driving through a drive thru and eating in the car on the way to something else or they grab their food and either wolf it down or go eat in separate rooms and do whatever they are fully engrossed in.  

I don't have a family now but I am guilty of grabbing food on the go sometimes or just grabbing food while  doing other things.   It used to be that all we did is sit at the table and HAVE DINNER... no phones.. because there weren't as many telemarketers and most people were at home having dinner so they didn't call you.   There was no texting or tweeting or facebooking during dinner.   We just sat at the table and ate and talked... That was it.   Dinner normally took up to an hour to finish that way.  

Is it better the way it is now or is that something that was left by the wayside in our super charged super speed world?

My mother would use that dinner to lecture us on the why drugs were bad and why certain behaviours were inappropriate or she would instill the fear of god if we did certain things.  That was her platform to lecture, inform, sleuth and generally figure out what was going on in the world outside.

More and more kids are becoming obese and have stress issues so I wonder if bringing back something as simple as having family dinners together might help kids stay away from trouble in many areas of their life.  I believe kids need to sit down and appreciate the food they eat and know where it comes from and who made it.

While I do not have a family to have family dinners with now I do try and get together with friends for dinner as much as I possibly can.  

I find it odd that things have changed so much that more and more families are spending less and less time just sitting at the table and having dinner together every night or at least having what they used to call Sunday Dinners where the Whole Family would get together and just eat and have fun.   

We didn't have many Sunday dinners but occasionally we would go to my aunts for dinner so that was our equivalent I suppose.  

Life is crazy these days and keeping up is a challenge so even if you can't do daily family dinners it might be a good idea to at least have regular weekly dinners with the people you love.   The definition of family is a lot different these days so whatever that means to you is what you should put your time and focus into.

Enjoy the food and create great food memories.